THE INTERNET; Seeking the Bubbe Vote

By JULIE BOSMAN

Published: September 27, 2008

It's called ''The Great Schlep,'' and it's headlined by the foul-mouthed comedian Sarah Silverman. But the effort to persuade young Jews to persuade their reluctant grandparents to vote for Senator Barack Obama is completely serious.

''It's zero percent tongue-in-cheek, 100 percent real,'' said Ari Wallach, a spokesman for the group, which went online on Thursday with a video starring Ms. Silverman.

''I'm making this video to urge you, all of you, to schlep over to Florida and convince your grandparents to vote Obama,'' Ms. Silverman says in the video. ''Explain to them that we're all the same inside. You know, you could compare an elderly Jewish woman like Nana to a young black man. They may seem totally different, but on paper, they're the same.'' (To make her case, she jokingly notes that Jews and blacks both favor track suits and Cadillacs.)

As of Friday evening, the video had been viewed nearly one million times and more than 5,000 people had joined the group's Facebook page. The Great Schlep is financed by the Jewish Council for Education and Research, and is not connected to Mr. Obama's campaign.

Mr. Wallach said he hoped the video would open up conversations about Mr. Obama and the issues in the election, especially around the dinner table during the Jewish holidays next week. ''We know that the No. 1 way to persuade someone in policy is to galvanize one group to talk to another,'' he said.

Or, as Ms. Silverman instructs in the video, ''Use threats.''

''If they vote for Barack Obama, they're gonna get another visit this year'' from their grandchildren, she says. ''If not, let's just hope they stay healthy till next year.''

Mr. Wallach said that Ms. Silverman did not have a grandparent in Florida.